ABSTRACT This article outlines a relational theory of legal inequality through a review of recent studies of crime, law, and deviance. I argue that three relational mechanisms—claims‐making, social closure, and exploitation—sharpen insight into the way material (e.g., police services, jobs in prison) and symbolic (e.g., legal recognition, dignity) resources are unequally distributed within and between organizations in the criminal legal system. While the criminal legal literature has long sought to document inequality among social groups subordinated within legal organizations (e.g., the poor or people of color in courts), a relational theory expands inquiry in two novel directions. First, future research could deepen analysis of criminal legal organizations as workplaces, not just as social control institutions. As workplaces, legal organizations may reproduce inequality between legal professionals (e.g., prosecutors, public defenders, social workers), with implications for those subject to the law. Second, future research could further examine how field‐level relations between organizations (e.g., public defender's office, reentry center, victim services unit) reproduce inequality through competition over resources. Relations between organizations determine the kinds of resources available for distribution within organizations. I conclude with several propositions for future research into the relational mechanisms that reproduce and challenge inequality in the criminal legal system.
Matthew Clair (Wed,) studied this question.